The former CEO of Stamford-based World Wrestling Entertainment, McMahon is embarked on her first foray into politics. She and Blumenthal are vying for retiring Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd's seat, and McMahon has pledged to spend $50 million if necessary to win.

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Carter Eskew, at one time a leading Democratic political media adviser for Dodd and U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, of Stamford, said McMahon's ad campaign reflects her professional wrestling background.

"What is WWE other than marketing?" he said. "You have to presume this woman knows something about marketing."

In a recent e-mail, McMahon's campaign observed that Labor Day marks "the unofficial end of summer (and) the beginning of campaign season."

Over the course of the last few months, McMahon has been everywhere -- on television, radio, the Internet and in mailboxes. She sent at least 16 mailers to households, including the 11-by-8 inch, 12-page booklet that could easily be mistaken for a catalog.

Some were so-called "negative" attacks on Blumenthal's character, targeting statements he has made about his military service and certain campaign donations. Her campaign says those ads are shining an accurate light on aspects of Blumenthal's career that have been ignored.

"The general wisdom is negative advertising works better than positive because people are more quick to believe something bad about somebody than something good said about yourself," Greenberg said.

But McMahon has also sent out plenty of positive mailers, including the 12-page booklet, intended to introduce her to voters.

And a week ago the campaign unveiled a radio ad in Spanish.

"People don't pay attention until after Labor Day, that's the common thinking," said Richard Hanley, a professor of journalism and interactive communications at Quinnipiac University. "She has the money to do both positive and negative ads (before Labor Day). She's trying to establish herself everywhere while also establishing a negative link to her opponent. She's leaving nothing on the table."

McMahon said in an interview her advertising blitz has worked, noting she has steadily gained on Blumenthal in the polls since January when he entered the race. When he announced in January, Blumenthal led McMahon by 41 points in the Quinnipiac University poll. By early August, she had narrowed the gap to 10 points and was 2 points ahead in support among independents.

McMahon, who won the party's nomination in May, also faced a three-way primary, although neither of her opponents was able to match her resources.

"We listen and monitor the reaction of the public," McMahon said. "But pretty much the response I am getting is, 'We enjoy hearing from you, we enjoy seeing what your stands on the issues are.' I haven't in any way felt it's overexposure."

McMahon also said Blumenthal "has had a 20-year head start," referring to his two decades as Connecticut's attorney general.

"He's gotten a lot of press coverage and still today sends out press releases from the attorney general's office that get picked up and covered around the state," she said.

Blumenthal's office issued at least 16 press releases in August.

Hanley agreed McMahon "has a higher hill to climb. She's new."

"There's certainly a risk of candidate fatigue, and that's the risk McMahon is taking," he said. "But she does have to do something to get to the same level of public consciousness as Blumenthal."

While Blumenthal's few ads have been positive, his wealthy family, according to financial reports, in June donated $70,000 to the Democratic State Central Committee, which has been making direct negative attacks on McMahon.

"I always assume when designing a direct mail piece the average person looks at it for five seconds. So if you're going to speak to somebody five seconds at a time, one direct mail piece is not enough," Russo said.

But Russo also acknowledged that no candidate in Connecticut history has ever had a war chest the size of McMahon's.

"This whole idea of a limitless campaign budget is completely and utterly new," Russo said. "Do we know if there's such a thing as too much? No."

A similar strategy appears to be working in California, where self-funded Republican Meg Whitman has gained on Democrat Jerry Brown in the polls. And she has not shown signs of wearing out her welcome, according to Walt Stone, a politics professor at the University of California, Davis.

"There's been a lot of discussion that she's on the air a lot and there have been some real concerns on the Democratic side that Brown has ceded the first punch to her and allowed her to introduce herself to the state in her own terms," Stone said.

Eskew said that normally he would expect voters in a small, blue New England state like Connecticut to reject candidates "with loud mouths and lots of money."

"That said, it's one of the worst years ever for Democrats," Eskew said. "Blumenthal would crush her in a normal year. But it's not a normal year."